[Ladygrey]

Hi there,

I had two groups of ewes to the rams this year

1st group was shetland shearling ewes (not lambed before) and shetland ewes

2nd group was un pedigree shetlands, shetland cross ryelands, wiltshorn crosses, and texel mule

To cut a long story short the two groups got in with eachother and as I was on my own and had no help or dog, I couldnt split them or move them or anything.

The rams each had a colour harness on,
the pedigree shetland ram of course was very rasict and went and covered every single white ewe (all of the non pedigree ewes) and the Hampshire down cross charollais ram covered all of my pedigree sheep 

So this year I dont think I will be getting any pedigree shetlands for expanding my flock and I am going to have THE most interesting and varied crosses ever produced.....(shet x wiltshorn, shet x texel/mule etc etc)

However the pedigree shetland shearlings are tiny still, must weigh maybe 35-40kilo, I think the one that is a wild black speck in the distance might not have been covered... but the others all had nice marks on them

Are they going to be ok lambing? or have I basically just lost all of them? is there ever a lamb that is just too large to come out? as im not going to be able to afford cesars and then if the ewe has to have one she has to go!!

My shetland ewes have lambed to charrolais before and lambed with no assistance but they are much larger and wasnt first time

Thanks

Jess

[moony]

We have lambed Shetland hoggs to Beltex which gives a nice marketable cross lamb and also some very very small hebridean x ewe lambs to a very large texel tup before and despite being rather apprehensive with the hebs never encountered any lambing issues. Just don't overfeed them.

[Marches Farmer]

I agree on the feeding.  You'll have hybrid vigour going for you.

[Ladygrey]

The sheep dont ever get fed anything, they only get hay when there is no grass so they should be ok on that I guess

Thanks Mooney thats good to know

[lachlanandmarcus]

Shetlands do have the second widest pelvis conformation so hopefully have a good chance tho you might want to house them close to lambing to keep a close eye on them.

[Rosemary]

is there ever a lamb that is just too large to come out? as im not going to be able to afford cesars and then if the ewe has to have one she has to go!!

I sincerely hope that all your ewes are fine and lamb without difficulty and I don't want to be the spectre at the feast but if you have a ewe that is clearly having difficulty lambing, what are you going to do? Shoot her?

We had a caesar in 2012 - nice big lamb, ewe was fine - the lamb paid for the caeser and more; if we'd sold the ewe rather than giving her away...

Just curious.

[Ladygrey]

Although I cannot afford for a ewe to have a cesar, I would have to pay for her to have one as I wouldnt be able to have her shot if she needed one, although I dont feed or molly coddle my sheep I do still love them

If she had a good crossbred lamb then yes it may pay back although I have no idea how much a cesar would cost where I am, and then I suppose it depends on the ewe as to what happend to her afterwards

I just have to hope they are all fine and that they dont have whopping big singles!

[Rosemary]

  that they'll be fine. Do you have them scanned?

[Ladygrey]

No I dont have them scanned, by next tupping (2014) I should have 30 ewes going to the tup and then I can justify having them scanned

I couldnt find anyone to come out to 12 ewes without charging a fortune, I thought it would be fine as long as none get fat 

[mark@farmhouse]

Charolais lambs have narrow shoulders which make lambing easier and are a great cross for native breeds I have tupped hebs to Charolais with no assists in 3 yrs ( touch wood ) it continues , sounds like you manage the flock well so would reckon you going to have some nice cross lambs

[Ladygrey]

Thankyou very much, I too have crossed before but not to first time lambers that are small shetlands, hopefully they just copy the ewes and lamb just fine